Alternative title(s): Hime-sama “Gōmon” no Jikan desu
Manga Adaptation by Pine Jam
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

The princess and her sentient sword are captured. Traditional torture is prohibited by treaties and conventions, so unconventional torture methods are required, such as tempting the princess with delicious Japanese food.

Peter’s verdict: Delicious in Jail Cell

A few days ago I added a quick verdict to the end of GLORIO’s first look of Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon (such a stupid English name, but it’s been the English name for 7 years now lol). In said verdict, I said that episode 1 made it feel like future episodes will have the format of:
Step 1) Find some monsters in the dungeon
Step 2) The elf is grossed out by the idea of eating them, among other reactions
Step 3) Cook the monsters into a meal
Step 4) Taste test
Step 5) Repeat

I was immediately told I was wrong, but there’s nothing in episode 1 that really makes clear what’s going to happen next outside of a vague “we’re off to rescue my sister from the dragon, but first let’s eat this mushroom”. Just an all round unsatisfying first episode.

Episode 1 of ‘Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess has very similar beats to the above:
Step 1) Torturer(s) enter the cell with some kind of food
Step 2) The princess is desperate to eat the food with a ridiculous monologue
Step 3) She breaks and divulges top secret information
Step 4) She eats
Step 5) Repeat

And yet I find myself more enthused about the next episode than Dungeon Meshi, despite the lack of any real plot. This is primarily because the show makes it very very clear that this is what you’re here for. You’re here for some over the top reactions to the princess being bribed with various foods along with some other characters along for the ride. As someone who enjoyed Gourmet Girl Graffiti, this very much feels like the spiritual sequel to that, only significantly less horny (at least as far as episode 1 goes).

There’s a similar vibe to another show I enjoyed from a while back called Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle where a princess was kidnapped but in a quest for steadily improving sleep quality, ends up doing ridiculous things and ends up being more of a menace on her kidnappers than they are on her. Time for Torture flips the roles around with the “tortures” being nice things like they’re stuck on good cop with no bad cop around, and the princess still getting what she wants.

Right at the end of the episode, we meet a couple of characters we saw briefly in the opening credits who will be “torturing” the princess next time. I get the impression they won’t be doing anything actually bad to her, although it may end up being an actual good cop, bad cop situation where one suggests doing real torture and the over overrules and does another food-related one or something like that.

I guess I’d like there to be things other than food to “torture” with to keep it fresh, but if they manage to maintain the goofiness levels at a similar level to episode 1, then I think we’re onto a good fun anime.